Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Microsoft has released yet another build of the next (and possibly last) service pack for its most popular operating system. The build, dubbed "Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 Refresh" (not to be confused with SP3 RC2), does not contain many changes. According to Microsoft Technet, "Beyond fixes for common Windows Update issues and the inclusion of support for HD Audio, there are no substantial differences between this beta release (build 5508) and XP SP3 RC2 (build 3311)."

The preview release is available to the public in three standalone downloads: English (315.2MB), German (312.0MB), and Japanese (324.5MB). Although Microsoft has still not disclosed a date (other than "first half of 2008"), XP SP3 is probably coming in the second half of April.